It's 28 years since I made my appearance on this Earth, on a snowy day in Shrewsbury, Charles Darwin's home town, some 171 years and one day after he was born. And what better way to celebrate than the announcement of a new genus and species of dinosaur? Velafrons coahuilensis is a new hadrosaur from the Late Cretaceous. I am particularly excited to see the marvellous reconstructed skull (my first thoughts when I see a new ornithopod discovery are to see if it a) has a nasal and b) has a jugal!), and I'm looking forward to adding that to the morphometrics data set when the laptop is back in my sweaty little hands (once I've checked that they're complete original bones).
So, my parents and my brother and his fiancée have bought me an Arc'teryx hiking top. It's red and really warm with good wicking action, so hopefully I won't smell like the First XV changing room when I get back from a yomp in the hills (the fact that it has a rendition of an opisthotonic theropod skeleton on the sleeve is an added bonus and not by any means the reason I asked for it, oh no...). It didn't cost as much as we thought it was going to, so I've been able to ask for some more exotic plants for my garden!
The hubster is buying me the Metasequoia glyptostroboides I won on eBay last night, and to go with it he's buying me a nice big terracotta pot to put it in, so he can point to it in the garden and say "I bought her this". Paul's grandparents are buying me an Araucaria araucana (yay monkey puzzle tree!), and his parents are buying me a shuttlecock fern (Matteucia struthiopteris), a myrtle (Myrtus communis tarentina) and a Chusan palm (Trachycarpus fortunei). I can't wait to get them all planted up. I'm really excited about the myrtle, because everything else I have is winter- or spring-flowering, and I don't want the bees and butterflies to have a mass exodus around April.
So what am I doing for my birthday then? Well, last Saturday we went to Chelsea Physic Garden, the second oldest botanical garden in England. It's only open to the public for six months or so a year, but they do have a Snowdrop Weekend in early February, and it's well worth a visit:
The hubster is buying me the Metasequoia glyptostroboides I won on eBay last night, and to go with it he's buying me a nice big terracotta pot to put it in, so he can point to it in the garden and say "I bought her this". Paul's grandparents are buying me an Araucaria araucana (yay monkey puzzle tree!), and his parents are buying me a shuttlecock fern (Matteucia struthiopteris), a myrtle (Myrtus communis tarentina) and a Chusan palm (Trachycarpus fortunei). I can't wait to get them all planted up. I'm really excited about the myrtle, because everything else I have is winter- or spring-flowering, and I don't want the bees and butterflies to have a mass exodus around April.
So what am I doing for my birthday then? Well, last Saturday we went to Chelsea Physic Garden, the second oldest botanical garden in England. It's only open to the public for six months or so a year, but they do have a Snowdrop Weekend in early February, and it's well worth a visit:
There are systematic beds, laid out by dicotyledon family (Paul was tickled by the fact that they were initially classified on the basis of their sexual organs):
They have tropical greenhouses and a cold fernery (which was a very pleasant surprise to me!):
And the crocuses were out in force too:
But the highlight for me was spotting a monkey puzzle tree or two in the corner of the garden. I love this photo, I've set it as my desktop, and if anyone knows of an amateur photography contest I can send it to, please let me know:
All other photos can be found here for your viewing pleasure.
This Saturday I will be at Kew Gardens. There's a Wollemia nobilis I want to see...
This Saturday I will be at Kew Gardens. There's a Wollemia nobilis I want to see...
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